2023 Week 3 – Our cardiovascular system is amazing!

Our cardiovascular system is amazing!

Have you ever thought just how amazing your heart is and the job it does to keep you alive? Your heart is the most important muscle in your body. It is part of the cardiovascular system and is responsible for delivering nutrients and oxygen to your cells all over your body. As your heart beats it both relaxes and contracts.  As it relaxes it fills with blood and when it contracts it distributes blood and oxygen around your body. Your heart has electrical signals much like the wires on our robot that signal when it needs to pump.   It takes a lot of work to pump blood around your body which is why it’s important to have a strong heart.  As you exercise, your muscles require more blood and oxygen which in turn increases your heart rate delivering increased amounts of oxygen and blood throughout your body. Exercise is so important and crucial for a healthy heart.   The American heart association recommends kids 6 to 17 years old should get at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity with most being aerobic.

 Here are some fun facts about your heart:

• The average size of a heart is the size of an adult’s fist.
• On average your heart pumps 5 quarts of blood every minute or an average of 2,000 gallons of blood every day.
• Your heart beats approximately 100,000 to 115,000 beats a day or 35 million beats a year.
• The heart can continue beating even when it’s disconnected from the body – wow!
• A woman’s heart beats slightly faster than a man’s heart.
• If you were to stretch out all your blood vessels, it would extend over 60,000 miles.
• Laughing is good for your heart. It reduces stress and gives a boost to your immune system. 

We’ve come a long way in the medical field over the past hundred years. As medical technology continues to advance, we are able to help more patients get the care that is needed.  We have seen the advancement of using robots and artificial intelligence in healthcare.    Robotic surgery has allowed doctors to perform complex surgeries like “heart surgery” through tiny incisions with precision and control.  The surgery is much less invasive, meaning that the robotic technology allows for smaller incisions and limits the size and number of cuts to the individual.  This allows for a much quicker recovery time than a traditional surgery, allowing the patient to return to normalcy at a quicker rate.  One thing you should know is that the robot is never alone doing the surgery.  Robotic equipment is simply another tool for surgeons to use to help facilitate the surgery.

Resources

• Best Robotics
• The Heart and Circulatory System – How they Work
• Operation Ouch – Pumping Hearts | Cardiovascular
• Robotic Cardiac Surgery
• The Rise of Robots in the Operating Room
• American Heart Association Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults and Kids
• Fun Facts About the Heart You Didn’t Know               
• Label the parts of the Heart Worksheet
• Systems Thinking for 21st-Century Cities
• Scissors, Glue, Journal.
• Optional: Color Pencils

Research/Reflect/Brainstorm          

 Grab a notebook or your journal and research the following:

• Watch the video “The Heart and Circulatory System – How they Work” and “Operation Ouch – Pumping Hearts | Cardiovascular”. Research what is included in the parts of the heart. Make a list of the different parts of the heart and their functions. Why is the heart so important?  What is its function?

• Watch the video “Robotic Cardiac surgery”. This is a short 3-minute video.  Tell me what you think.  Are you comfortable with robotic aided surgery?  

Activity

 Group – “Think – Pair – Share”.  

Watch the TED Talk video on “Rise of the Robotics in The Operating Room.”

• First, think about what you saw in both the “TED talk video – The Rise of Robots in the Operating Room” and “Robotic Cardiac Surgery”. Is this what you pictured robotic surgery to be like? Do you believe in the future of robotic surgery; will it be performed by a robot only or will there always be surgeons that use robotic equipment to guide them in surgery?  How is this surgery better than traditional surgery?  Go to google and search “robotic equipment.”  Print off one piece of surgical robotic equipment to share with your partner.
• Second, pair up with a partner to share your thoughts and research.
• If you are able to share with your class then share what you and your partner discussed.

 Individual –

Watch the Ted Talk Video on “The Rise of Robots in the Operating Room”.  Next, grab your journal and list 3 to 5 things you found interesting. Thinking of where they are using robots now, where should they try next? Where do you think a robot should be used next to advance science and our health? If you could, what would you design next in the medical field using a robot?

Additional Activity:

First, print out the diagram “Label the parts of the heart worksheet”.  Then paste it to your journal and label each part of the heart.  Once you’re finished labeling, use color pencils to color the different parts of the heart with the corresponding label.  

BEST connection 

Your body has different organs. These organs perform specific functions in the body in order for your body to function. We have just learned that the heart is a muscle; the most important muscle in your body. Your heart and circulatory system is a transport system, it delivers oxygen and nutrients to your entire body by way of your blood.

Now let us take a look at the parts of the BEST program, whether it be the components of the BEST award or parts of the BEST kit. What part would you compare to your heart? Describe that part and the role it plays as the most important muscle in BEST.

The heart is the most important muscle in the body.  It performs so much work throughout our day by allowing proper blood flow and oxygen to flow throughout the body. The heart does all this without you having to think about telling it when to beat or how to function.  It’s much like how we write programs for our robot in order for it to perform certain functions by itself.  If the program is written correctly, the robot acts on its own and without any problems performing tasks the way you intended. Reflecting on what you learned about how the heart works, can you write a short program, a list of steps, for your heart and the other muscles in your body, allowing you to walk across the room?

Community Connection

Just as our hearts are such an important part of our body controlling the flow of blood and oxygen, are there community systems which control or impact our lives in a similar way?

Read the article Linking for 21st-Century Cities

What is essential in our community to keep it going? If a certain system wasn’t there, would you have Hope? Would you be safe? Would you have food and water to keep you alive?

What is critical to life and well being?

Read the article Systems Thinking for 21st-Century

Bloom’s Taxonomy: create, explore, evaluate, generate, include, identify, list, observe, reflect, review, use, and write

Workforce Skills:

Critical thinking, Collaboration, materials evaluation, reading comprehension, science, writing, research